The Darkness of Roses (On Hold)
by Sam Carmichael
Summary: The story is set 6 months after Series 7. Both Keri and Dan are beginning to feel something more than friendship stir after he saved her from the Mastermind. He feels conflicted between her and Zoe, and she feels conflicted between her feelings and doing right by her sister. But when a certain mission creates tension between the two. What will happen?
1. Envelop Me

_Darkness. All I can see is Darkness. It envelops me. It consumes me. It controls me. Darkness._

The day began as it normally would. I caught the number 12 bus that stops just 2 streets from the school's entrance. I walked the rest of the way, and just before walking through the rusty, metal gates, I see Preston. He jogs up to me, and when he comes up shortly, is in a panic. He starts speaking rapidly about another global-warming conspiracy. I interrupt and calm him down. He takes a deep breath and smiles sweetly.

"Thanks Keri, I think I needed that," I smile back. "It's just… I've been so wound up lately, I think I might need to relax just a little."

I nod and reply that he definitely has seemed a little over tired, based on the black rings under his eyes. He lights up, like he has just thought of a way to save the rainforest!

"Say, Keri, would you be interested for joining me for lunch tomorrow?" I do a double-take. _Is he asking me out?_

"Are you asking me out?" He grins sheepishly.

"Yes, sort of. So, would you?" I'm at lost for words. Just as I was about to come up with an excuse and sneak away swiftly, I see a certain blue-eyed boy from the corner of my eye. A sharp pang hits my chest suddenly and I feel out of breath. I shift my eyes back to Preston, only to see them filled with curiosity as to what I might say.

He's staring from across the courtyard now, watching my every move. I rub my neck uncomfortably. But then I wonder, what's it to him. He hasn't made a move. I set my jaw. _Why shouldn't I have some fun?_ I'm not going to let a silly little feeling get in the way of me having a good time. I stand up a little taller and smile dazzlingly at Preston. I wait until a certain boy is in ear-shot. When he is, I reply,

"Actually, I think… I'm all free tomorrow! I'd love to go out with you" And who knows? Maybe Preston won't be so bad.

_Darkness. It's closing in on me. I'm sinking in to nothingness. A black empty pit of pain. Darkness._

_Tap. Tap. Tap. _I strum my pencil on my desk in time with the clock. Mrs King's voice draining out of earshot and getting quieter and quieter as I chew my tongue thoughtfully. _I wonder where Preston is taking me tomorrow. _I am so deep in my own thoughts, that I barely notice when Tom is tugging at my shirt sleeve desperately. I shake my head clear of my daydreams and turn to him. He points to the door then shows me his communicator. It's flashing. We have a mission. And I was not going to daydream through it.

As we all hurried to the Store Cupboard, Aneisha starts to question me about my conversation with Preston.

"Is it true he asked you out?" She exclaims. I nod.

"Yeah, at the gates. He was really sweet about it." I can see Dan's fists clench as he runs faster. I sigh. If only what I saw was real. That look I think I see when he looks at me. But, I think now, and realise that all he sees is a reminder of Zoe. Except more annoying as he has put it before. I shake my head again. I thought there was supposed to be no more daydreams. Get your head in the game Keri.

We reach the door and I slide the hatch aside. I press my thumb on the cool surface of the pad and wait for a click. When it does, I push the cover back, and open the door. When we have all stepped inside, it feels slightly more cramped. So cramped, in fact, that I feel every movement of the one that stands beside me, shoulder to shoulder. And just my luck, it's Dan. Every rustle of our clothes brushing against each other sends millions of shocks and shivers up my spine. I take a deep breath and pull the handle.

Exiting the lift first, I run out into the cool air and spaced area of HQ. Happy to be able to breathe again, I sit down at the table and put all my focus on Frank as he greets us and begins to explain our new mission.

"Team, you have a new mission. And I have a feeling you're not going to like it."


	2. Consume Me

_Darkness. All I can see is Darkness. It envelops me. It consumes me. It controls me. Darkness._

_**Keri's Pov-**_

I look at the other 4 in the base in the tense base. The air was thick with it… tension. Raw tension, that didn't just flow from the stiff stances Dan and I were showcasing as his hand brushed against mine, coming to stand up short as the contact is made, beside me, but from the sentence that just emanated from Frank's mouth. I suck in a deep breath and ask the question on everyone's mind.

"Frank, what's this terrifying mission then?" I speak calmly, waiting in cowardly fear for what we might accomplish on this mission, as a team, as in also Dan.

"It's not terrifying, so much, more you never want to talk about it again. Ever." Frank signs dejectedly. I chew my lip in thought. What could it possibly be? What horrors await us?

**Dan's Pov-**

She looks so adorable, chewing her lip like that. Christ, stop it Dan, you like Zoe. Keri is just her mirror image, her annoying doppelgänger. But, she does make annoying so adorable. C'mon, focus on the mission. I stare at Frank waiting for the task to be given to us. But am bitterly disappointed, as Frank says nothing still.

"Well, it's um, it's," Frank stutter's. I roll my eyes in annoyance.

"Get on with it Frank!" I groan, finally not being able to stand the suspense anymore. Frank gulps deeply, then speaks long and low, in a hushed whisper, barely audible to the four people standing less than a metre away from him. As he speaks, our eyes widen at his words.

"It's Zoe," he breathes. "She's been taken by KORPS."

At these few uttered breaths, my world, surprisingly, doesn't standstill, or fall apart or any of that crap. I don't know, if it's because of how I feel about Keri, or my determination to find the one who still clutches my lingering wisps of emotion tightly. My head is swirling and spinning with thoughts, and my knees start to weaken and soon they are buckling with my weight. Before I collapse into a heap on the cool concrete floor though, I am being led to the chair that Keri was previously sitting in, and by none other than the former occupant herself.

Usually I would stiffen at her gentle touch, but I am too numb with sheer worry for Zoe, and confusion from the feelings that have manifested within me regarding the two sisters I have come to grow so close with. I run my hands down my face and take a breath, so deep, that I feel the coolness of it pierce my warm insides as it hits the bottom of my lungs and rattles my ribcage mercilessly in the process.

"What do we have to do?"

**Keri's Pov-**

His eyes, they had started to quiver with worry and fill to the brink with fresh, hot tears, as soon as the news of Zoe's distressing whereabouts left Frank's lips. And I know it's selfish to think of myself in a time like this, where my own flesh and blood is being held captive against her will, in the most hellish place on Earth… but I was right. Dan doesn't care for me like he does Zoe. If he did, I probably would have done something already. I'm not afraid of a stupid boy. But this stupid, stupid, ridiculously amazing boy, I'm somehow terrified of. And I don't know how to forget him. Because he _consumes_ me.


	3. Control Me

_Darkness. All I can see is Darkness. It envelops me. It consumes me. It controls me. Darkness._

_**Keri's Pov-**_

I couldn't take it anymore. And before I knew it I was running towards the lift that lead to the school from the underground base, that held so much anxiety in it's atmosphere. As I reached the large metal doors that prevented me from escaping, I heard a scurry of feet quickly followed by a large chorus of "Keri"s.

The one voice that rung out over all of the others, and the one face that showed he most worry etched into their beautiful features was Dan's. And ass the doors from hell opened its jaws and allowed me passage, that boy who is slowly taking over my soul, jumped into the fiery pit after me. And then, after the deafening metal clang of closing doors was established, and the freezing cold whoosh of plummeting upwards was felt on blushing cheeks, he spoke.

* * *

><p>The long journey up was excruciatingly painful… I felt as if every fibre of my being was being terrorised, burnt at the stake, and then blown into icy cold water off of a really, really tall cliff. The burning and terrorising I could deal with. But the falling, it just made me want to regurgitate my jelly from morning break. But alas, this is how I felt as I was being spoken to by the most gorgeous (Abercrombie and Finch model worthy) guy in the whole universe. His voice, was so soft, it turned me into a mist, drifting away with the summer's breeze.<p>

"Keri, why did you run off like that?" Oh god! Please, make him stop. "Keri, are you crying?"

I rub furiously at the tears shimmering down my paling cheeks. I shake my head. I can't take his kind, pitiful words anymore.

"Keri, please, talk to me." He whispers, trying to soothe my shaaking form. For I have now broken down. My shoulders sag and I slump to the floor in defeat. I don't know how to tell him. Should I tell him? What if he doesn't want to hear it. Or he leaves me alone forever. I only just got him to like me as a friend. I don't want to spoil it. I can't. I won't. But… he has to know.

"Who has to know?" His tone kills me, but… WHAT! Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crapitty, crap, Crap, CRAP! Shit. He knows. Oh Jesus Christ! Keri, you feking idjot! What have you done?


End file.
